Determining the Software Version

Note We strongly recommend that you use the latest available software release supported by your vendor for all Cisco MDS 9000 Family products.

To determine the version of the Cisco MDS SAN-OS software currently running on a Cisco MDS 9000 Family switch using the CLI, log into the switch and enter the show version EXEC command.

To determine the version of the Cisco MDS SAN-OS software currently running on a Cisco MDS 9000 Family switch using the Fabric Manager, view the Switches tab in the Information pane, locate the switch using the IP address, logical name, or WWN, and check its version in the Release column.

Image Upgrade

The Cisco MDS SAN-OS software is designed for mission-critical high availability environments. To realize the benefits of nondisruptive upgrades on the Cisco MDS 9500 Directors, we highly recommend that you install dual supervisor modules.

You can nondisruptively upgrade to Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.0(4) from any SAN-OS software release beginning with Release 1.3(x). If you are running an older version of the SAN-OS, upgrade to Release 1.3(x) and then Release 2.0(4).

When downgrading from Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.0(4) to Release 1.3(x), you might need to disable new features in Release 2.0(4) for a nondisruptive downgrade. Issuing the install all command from the CLI, or using Fabric Manager to perform the downgrade enables the compatibility check. The check indicates that the downgrade is disruptive and the reason is "current running-config is not supported by new image."

Compatibility check is done:

Module bootable Impact Install-type Reason

------ -------- -------------- ------------ ------

2 yes disruptive reset Current running-config is not
supported by new image

3 yes disruptive reset Current running-config is not
supported by new image

5 yes disruptive reset Current running-config is not
supported by new image

6 yes disruptive reset Current running-config is not
supported by new image

At a minimum, you need to disable the default device alias distribution feature using the no device-alias distribute command in global configuration mode. The show incompatibility system bootflash:1.3(x)_filename command determines which additional features need to be disabled.

Limitations and Restrictions

There are no limitations for this release.

Caveats

This section lists the open and resolved caveats for this release. Use Table 3 to determine the status of a particular caveat. In the table, "O" indicates an open caveat and "R" indicates a resolved caveat.

Resolved Caveats

•CSCeh21199

Symptom: If the NetApp file server appliance is configured as an initiator performing a Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) backup, then the fabric login (FLOGI) process on the MDS switch might terminate because of excessive LSTS requests.

This might happen if your N port or NL port uses extended link services to manage and control a public remote loop. The NetApp file server appliance configuration uses these services, namely LSTS and LINIT, which are documented in the Fibre Channel standards compliance (FC-FLA standard) specification.

Workaround: Upgrade to Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.0(4).

Open Caveats

•CSCeg33121

Symptom: A small amount of memory in the IP configuration process leaks each time any of the following commands execute: show running-config, show startup-config, copy running-configstartup-config. After repeated occurrences, the command fails to execute.

Workaround: None.

•CSCsd29338

Symptom: The port manager might crash and a switchover might occur when FICON is configured and the MDS switch is interoperating with a CNT device. This occurs when a port is UP, a link failure happens, and the remote node ID (RNID) retry timer is activated.

Workaround: None.

•CSCed57251

Symptom: In some rare instances in Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 1.3, 2.0, and 2.1(1), when the IP Storage Services (IPS) module restarted after a failure, VSAN membership information about iSCSI interfaces was lost. However, a configuration saved with the copy running-config startup command was not lost.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeg11095

Symptom: Duplicate fabrics are opened under different SANs when the loadFromDB option is selected.

Workaround: Select Admin > Fabrics to remove the fabric, and then reopen it with the loadFromDB box deselected.

•CSCeg12962

Symptom: Some hosts may not accept IKE tunnel creation from Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches when an IKE session already exists in the switch. In such cases it may take more than the expected time for the IPsec session to come up. This scenario can happen when the Gigabit Ethernet interface on the switch fails and comes back up or if you issue a VRRP switchover to a different switch.

Workaround: For a faster recovery, disconnect and reinitiate the iSCSI session from the host.

•CSCeg20932

Symptom: If an IPS module with operational FCIP PortChannels is reloaded, upgraded, or downgraded, the supervisor module may be reloaded causing the system to reboot.

Workaround: Before reloading, upgrading, or downgrading an IPS module, shut down all FCIP PortChannels on the line card.

•CSCeg53114

Symptom: WWNs assigned to iSCSI initiators by the system can inadvertently be returned to the system when an upgrade fails or a manual downgrade is performed, such as when an older iSAN software version is booted up without using the install all command. In these scenarios, the system can later assign those WWNs again to other initiators, which causes conflicts. This bug is a duplicate of CSCei17870.

•CSCeg82721

Symptom: Under certain traffic patterns, the Gigabit Ethernet port can flap when auto compression mode is selected. This problem can also occur rarely even when compression mode 1 is selected.

Workaround: Use mode 2 or mode 3 compression mode if the maximum throughput required is less than 25 Mega bits/sec. There is no workaround if the throughput requirement is > 25 Mbps.

•CSCeg90336

Symptom: A user that you create in Fabric Manager or Device Manager cannot log in from the console. Release 2.1(2) fixes this problem. However, if a third-party application creates a user using SNMP, a new MIB is required for Release 3.0.

Workaround: Third-party applications should use SSH to connect to the MDS 9000 switch, and then use CLI commands to create the user account.

•CSCeh49026

Symptom: The application might report that the loop port is not up, however, the port is online and operational.

Symptom: FCIP Write Acceleration does not work with certain storage replication subsystems.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeh87930

Symptom: A newly configured FCIP link may fail to come up when running on an MPS-14/2 module. This symptom may occur following an upgrade of Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.0(1b) to Release 2.0(3) and the configuration of a new FCIP link.

VSAN xyz is the allowed VSAN number for the FCIP interface and interface fcipabc is the configured FCIP interface number.

Workaround: Reload the MPS-14/2 module using the reload module module-number command, where module-number is a specific module.

•CSCeh90270

Symptom: Two MDS 9000 switches configured with an FCIP bridge port (B port) tunnel may have problems with multi-frame sequences. You may notice this problem activating large zone sets when the SFC frame times out.

Workaround: If the connection is between two MDS switches, then the B port configuration is not required and should not be used. If B port is a requirement, then reduce the zone set length by not distributing the full database, or useVSANs.

•CSCeh93625

Symptom: The modules shut down after the supervisor module fails.

Workaround: Remove the failed supervisor module and reinsert the line card. Or enter the no poweroff module slot command in Exec mode on the switch, whereslot is the slot number of the module that failed.

•CSCeh96928

Symptom: If your switch port is configured in auto speed (switchport speed auto) and auto mode (switchport mode auto), the switch-port fails to establish a link with the device connected through Emulex HBA LP8000 and remains in link-failure state. The problem occurs with the following combination of HBA, Driver, Firmware, and OS configured at 1 Gbps.

Sympton: An error message in the log file occurs because the platform manager component passes the wrong parameter while responding to a SNMP query. In some cases, this results in the query not being responded to.

Workaround: Perform a refresh on Device Manager to clear the problem.

•CSCsd78967

Symptom: If you remove a port from a port channel or shutdown a member port of a port-channel, the ConnUnitPortStatus/State trap is not sent.

Workaround: None.

•CSCsh27840

Symptom: While using an FCIP link for remote SPAN, it is possible that the FCIP link may flap.

Workaround: Do not use FCIP links for Remote SPAN.

•CSCec31365

Symptom: When IVR is enabled, the Fabric-Device Management Interface information is not transferred across VSANs for IVR devices.

Workaround: None.

•CSCed14920

Symptom: During a switch upgrade, a SAN Volume Controller (SVC) node may not save its entire state under rare circumstances. This results in that node not being part of the cluster after the switch upgrade. Verify this symptom by issuing the show nodes local command at the svc-config prompt—the command output displays the following information:

–The cluster state of the affected SVC node is unconfigured.

–The node state of the affected SVC node is free.

Workaround: Manually remove the SVC node from the cluster and then add the node back into the cluster. Refer to the Cisco MDS 9000 Family SAN Volume Controller Configuration Guide for procedural details.

•CSCed20053

Symptom: On rare occasions, the install license command may fail due to the saved state of the switch configuration. This may occur after saving a remote configuration to the switch using the copy remote-url start-up command.

Workaround:Issue the copy ru st command. The install license command should work properly after that.

•CSCef56229

Symptom: If an iSCSI initiator is configured differently on multiple switches, iSNS might report more targets to the initiator than the initiator can access. An iSCSI initiator would get a target error if it attempts to establish a connection.

Workaround: None.

•CSCef95611

Symptom:After a successful database merge, the show cfs merge status name application_name command output may not reflect the correct merge status. However, the merge operation remains successful.

Workaround: None. The correct status is displayed when you perform additional CFS operations.

•CSCeg01551

Symptom: If you issue a dpvm commit command, the DPVM application implicitly activates the existing configuration database. The configuration database is activated only when the dpvm commit command is explicitly issued after the dpvm activate command.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeg12383

Symptom: On rare occasions, the PortChannels with FCIP interface members fail to come up when the switch reboots. This happens when the startup configuration has a default switchport trunk mode setting that does not match the configured trunk mode for PortChannel members (FCIP interfaces). Also, the startup configuration shows any explicit switchport trunk mode setting for the PortChannel.

Workaround: Reconfigure the switchport trunk mode on the PortChannel.

•CSCeg35694

Symptom: If you delete a fabric and then enable the LoadFromDB option while the fabric rediscovers it, there might be a delay in seeing the fabric in the Fabric Manager client.

Workaround: Do not enable the LoadFromDB option in the Fabric Open dialog box when rediscovering the fabric again.

•CSCeg37200

Symptom: Fabric Manager end-to-end connectivity tab does not display properly. The screen turns gray and a java.lang.nullPointerException can be found in the log.

Workaround: Close the dialog and relaunch it.

•CSCeg37598

Symptom: The iSNS server might crash when iSCSI is disabled and iSNS is enabled using Fabric Manager.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeg40856

Symptom: In Fabric Manager, a null pointer exception error message might result in a zone merge recovery on an already recovered fabric.

Workaround: Close the dialog box and relaunch it.

•CSCeh56143

Symptom: A Fabric Manager zone migration wizard causes a Telnet session to hang when a non-MDS switch is present.

a. Create a self-certified key (xxxxxx.pem file) on an external server (we use a utility under Hi-Command).

b. Enter conf t to enter configuration mode.

c. Enter cimserver certificate xxxxxx.pem to install a certificate specified in the file named with a .pem extension.

d. Enter cimserver enablehttps to enable HTTPS (secure protocol).

e. Enter cimserver enable to enable the CIM server.

f. Enter Ctrl-z to quit

Workaround: None

•CSCeg24199

Symptom: Your connection to the server might terminate during an upgrade/downgrade process if the client is detecting the server's status upon receiving events. If the client does not receive any events from the server for a certain amount of time, it assumes that the server is down and closes the connection. Fabric Manager timeouts have also been seen that do not coincide with upgrade/downgrade events.

Workaround: Remove the fabric and then reopen it.

•CSCeh19639

Symptom: Alias for a down endport is not shown andis referenced by its pwwn in the Edit FullZoneset screen of the Fabric Manager rather than the fcalias name. This does not affect the functionality of adding those members to the zones either in Fabric Manager or in the CLI.

Workaround: None

•CSCeh41099

Symptom: Protocol and port numbers, if specified in a IP ACL assigned to a IPSec profile (crypto map), will be ignored.

The interop between Microsoft's iSCSI initiator with IPSec encryption with Cisco MDS 9000 Series switches. If IPSec is configured in the Microsoft iSCSI initiator (also the IPSec/IKE initiator), the host IPSec implementation sends the following IPSec policy:

source IP - Host IP, dest IP - MDS IP,

source port - any, dest port - 3260 (iSCSI), protocol - 6 (TCP).

Upon receiving the above policy, the protocol and port numbers are ignored and only the IP addresses for the IPSec policy are used. Thus, althhough iSCSI traffic is encrypted, non-iSCSI trafffic (such as ICMP ping) sent by the Microsoft Host in cleartext will be dropped in the MDS port.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeh48138

Symptom: If the NetApp file server appliance is configured as an initiator performing a Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) backup, then the fabric login (FLOGI) process on the MDS switch might terminate because of excessive LINIT requests.

This might happen if your N port or NL port uses extended link services to manage and control a public remote loop. The NetApp file server appliance configuration uses these services, namely LSTS and LINIT, which are documented in the Fibre Channel standards compliance (FC-FLA standard) specification.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeh51924

Symptom: A corrupted entry is created in the snmpTargetParamsTable when a user creates an entry with NULL string in object snmpTargetParamsName as its index. The SNMP service may stop and restart.

Workaround: None. To avoid similar problems, enter a name in snmpTargetParamsName with at least one character when creating a snmpTargetParamsEntry.

•CSCeh52280

Symptom: A corrupted license file installs on an MDS 9000 switch without errors.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeh64080

Symptom: Following an upgrade from Release 1.1 to Release 1.3 or later, with persistent FC ID enabled, the FC IDs for the storage arrays may get changed after a link flap.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeh65824

Symptom: If you install an SSM and boot it with either the VSFN or SSI Image, the Enterprise License grace period starts.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeg66225

Symptom: Password recovery might fail if you use the copy <config-url> startup command to save the switch configuration, or if you boot a system image that is older than the image you used to store the configuration and did not use the install all command. The following message might display in syslog or on the console during the process of password recovery.

<<%ASCII-CFG-2-ACFG_CONFIGURATION_APPLY_ERROR>>

Workaround: Issue the write erase command from the switchboot prompt.

Note Using the write erase command will erase the configuration. You must reapply the configuration, if externally stored, after the switch login.

•CSCeg61535

Symptom:The Telnet server may not be disabled even if you disable it through setup. A telnet session will still work in the switch.

Workaround: Issue the no telnet server enable command in configuration mode to disable telnet after you login to the switch.

•CSCeh73101

Symptom: When you perform a nondisruptive upgrade from Release 1.3(x) to 2.0(x), and then issue the show running-config command, the switch displays the wrong user. The user shown will be inconsistent with the user shown when you issue the show user-account command.

Workaround: Recreate the user.

•CSCeg81089

Symptom: A Windows host running Hummingbird 10 with Connectivity Secure Shell 9, cannot use SSH to connect to an MDS switch running Cisco MDS SAN-OS Releases 2.0(x)using the same host configuration as was used when connecting to an MDS switch running 1.3(x) code.The host will display the error, "Authentication Failed, no more shared authentication methods".

Workaround: Reconfigure the client to use "keyboard-interactive" instead of "password" for authentication. To do this, go to tunnel profile settings, select Security Settings>Authentication. Ensure the "keyboard interactive" is the method used, "password" might be the currently configured method. Or upgrade to Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.1(1a).

•CSCeg85146

Symptom: The show running command output shows the callhome profile alertgroups with an underscore ( _ ) rather than a dash ( - ). If the show running command in Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 1.3.x shows callhome profile with alertgroups as an underscore ( _ ), then it will carry it over to the release 2.x code and cannot be deleted. This occurs if the following alert groups have been configured:

–cisco_tac

–supervisor_hardware

–linecard_hardware

Workaround: Before upgrading to Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.x, issue the show running command and delete the following alert groups:

–cisco_tac

–supervisor_hardware

–linecard_hardware

•CSCeh82490

Symptom: An MDS 9000 switch running SAN-OS 2.0(1b) can potentially send excessive Call Home messages due to a malfunctioning line card that acts as if it were being inserted and removed repeatedly.

Workaround: None.

•CSCeh83514

Symptom: After upgrading to Release 2.0, it is no longer possible to create, modify, or delete the admin role.

Workaround: Before upgrading to Release 2.0, create the admin role.

•CSCeh87985

Symptom: When no role is associated with a user, SNMP fails when the no role name admin command is issued to delete the admin role. The SNMP user (admin) has no roles assigned, which causes the failure when there is an attempt to delete a specific role.

Workaround: Associate at least one role (group) to the user by executing the snmp-server user username [group-name] command in configuration mode.

•CSCei29086

Symptom: Following the installation of a third-party syslog server to a PC running Fabric Manager and Device Manager, the third-party syslog server takes ownership of the PC's IP address as the syslog server. As a result, the MDS switch is no longer able to act as the syslog server.

You can see the error message "java.lang.NullPointerException" if you verify syslog on the MDS switch through Device Manager by choosing Logs > Syslog > Verify.

If you uninstall the third-party software and verify syslog again with Logs > Syslog > Verify, you see the error message "Can't connect to FM server."

Workaround: To allow the MDS 9000 switch to be the syslog server, follow these steps:

Symptom: If a link is isolated because of a fabric-binding database mismatch, a reactivation of the corrected fabric-binding database may not initialize the ports.

Workaround: Use the shut command followed by the no shut commandto manually disable then enable the link.

•CSCei58652

Symptom: When a reconfigure fabric (RCF) frames occurs on a VSAN, the ports may be left in a state where the fabric binding is incorrect.

Workaround: None.

•CSCei67982

Symptom: During an upgrade of an MDS switch with two or more MPS-14/2 modules, FCIP tunnels on multiple MPS-14/2 modules can be down at the same time. If a PortChannel of two FCIP tunnels on different MPS-14/2 modules is used for redundancy, the redundancy can be lost. If IVR is running over these FCIP tunnels, IVR can lose remote devices as a result of loss of access over the FCIP based PortChannel.

Workaround: Place other modules on which you can perform a hitless upgrade between the MPS-14/2 modules to allow for more time between module upgrade and to give the FCIP tunnels more time to stabilize. To recover access over the FCIP based PortChannel, reactivate the IVR zone set by adding a dummy zone with two dummy members.

•CSCei91676

Symptom: If iSCSI virtual targets are configured with more than 50 LUN maps, then erroneous overlapping LUN map system messages appear when the iSCSI initiator is not allowed to log in to these iSCSI virtual targets.

Workaround: Limit the number of configured LUN maps for an iSCSI virtual target to fewer than 50 LUNs.

•CSCei91968

Symptom: In a fabric with more than one switch, there is a possibility of CFS or syslog crashing because of a PSS-FULL condition. This happens because of leakage in the PSS records stored by the CFS module.

CFS internal distributions cause a PSS leakage during one of the following:

–An application registration/de-registration. (This is at the rate of 1 PSS records or 60 bytes per event.)

–-An ISL Link flap. (This is at the rate of 2 PSS records per CFS registered application. For 10 CFS registered applications, a 1000 flaps would cause a leak of about 1M.)

Application and Regular CFS distributions in a stable fabric do not result in PSS leakages.

Workaround: None. A switchover will help in cleaning up these records but the usage of the partition remains same (dev/shm partition). However, CFS will reuse the freed space for further PSS storage.

•CSCin81851

Symptom: A system switchover causes the boot variables to disappear from display in both the show running and show startup command outputs. However, the functionality is unaffected, and the boot variables are still set as displayed in the show boot command output.

Workaround: Issue the show boot command to verify the boot variables.

•CSCsc09732

Symptom: If there is a port software failure at the same time as a configuration change for an FCIP interface, the configuration change can fail and subsequent configuration and show commands will fail for that FCIP interface.

Workaround: None.

•CSCsc31424

Symptom: Issuing the no shutdown command on a port produces this error:

fc1/1: (error) port channel config in progress - config not allowed

You can reproduce the problem by removing a port from a port channel and then perform a system switchover. However, the problem does not always occur with these steps.

Workaround: Use the channel-group X command where port channel X, to configure a new port channel and add the port to it. Then use the no interface port-channel X command to remove the newly created port channel. The no shutdown command will now be accepted on the port.

•CSCsc33788

Symptom: In rare circumstances, after you issue the install all command to upgrade an MDS switch, the upgrade may fail because the installer process fails. When this occurs, you may see a message like the following:

%CALLHOME-2-EVENT: SW_CRASH alert for service: installer

The installer failed to respond for 10 times. Exiting ...

Unable to send exit to installer. Return code -1

If you upgrade from 1.3(x) to 2.1 or from 2.0(x) to 2.1 and the upgrade fails, and if after the upgrade failure the supervisor modules are running the new software version, but some modules are running the older software version, then the next attempt to execute the install all command will trigger this problem.

You should not encounter this problem if you upgrade from 2.1 to a higher version.

Symptom: A Fibre Channel Inter-Switch Link (ISL) does not come up and it displays a fabric binding database mismatch error when fabric binding is activated. Thi s problem may be seen when a supervisor switchover occurs or is performed and this ISL comes up. The fabric binding merge activity detects an incompatible database and fails to bring up the link because an incorrect domain ID is being used by the fabric binding module. The fabric binding module on the switch where the switchover occurs would have cleared its local domain ID and be using a domain ID of zero.

Workaround: Issue the fcdomain restart vsanvsan-id command in the VSANs of interest.

•CSCse99087

Symptom: A user called snmp-user can successfully log into an MDS switch through the CLI, but cannot log in through Fabric Manager or Device Manager. The login attempt fails with this error: SNMP: Unknown username

Workaround: None.

•CSCsf21970

Symptom: If you issue immediate, back-to-back commands to delete and then create FCIP interfaces, the internal port service might crash.

Workaround: Wait 5 seconds between the delete and the following create command for a given FCIP interface.

•CSCsg03171

Symptom: The dynamic port VSAN membership (DPVM) failed after the number of F ports exceeded 64 and a port flap occurred.

Workaround: Keep the number of F ports in a switch below 64.

•CSCsg15392

Symptom: If a Generation 1 module has any port that is administratively up, but operationally down when you upgrade from SAN-OS Release 2.x to either Release 3.0(1) or Release 3.0(2x), you might experience traffic disruption on that module.

Workaround: Use the shutdown command to shut all the ports operationally down and administratively up on all the Generation 1 modules before upgrading from SAN-OS Release 2.x to Release SAN-OS 3.0(x) or Release 3.0(2x). After the upgrade is complete, the ports can be brought to an administratively up state using the noshutdown command.

•CSCeh42252

Symptom: If you try to configure SSH key for any of the non-local user- accounts, in some rare cases you might see a core dump on standby.

Workaround: First delete the non-local user-account and create it again so that it becomes a local user-account. Then perform any type of configuration for that user-account. User should not perform configuration operations on non- local user-accounts. Non-local user-accounts can be created due to users getting authenticated using RADIUS/TACACS+ server.

Related Documentation

The documentation set for the Cisco MDS 9000 Family includes the following documents:

Obtaining Documentation

Cisco documentation and additional literature are available on Cisco.com. Cisco also provides several ways to obtain technical assistance and other technical resources. These sections explain how to obtain technical information from Cisco Systems.

Documentation DVD

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Registered Cisco.com users (Cisco direct customers) can order a Cisco Documentation DVD (product number DOC-DOCDVD=) from the Ordering tool or Cisco Marketplace.

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Cisco is committed to delivering secure products. We test our products internally before we release them, and we strive to correct all vulnerabilities quickly. If you think that you might have identified a vulnerability in a Cisco product, contact PSIRT:

Tip We encourage you to use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) or a compatible product to encrypt any sensitive information that you send to Cisco. PSIRT can work from encrypted information that is compatible with PGP versions 2.x through 8.x.

Never use a revoked or an expired encryption key. The correct public key to use in your correspondence with PSIRT is the one that has the most recent creation date in this public key server list:

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For all customers, partners, resellers, and distributors who hold valid Cisco service contracts, Cisco Technical Support provides 24-hour-a-day, award-winning technical assistance. The Cisco Technical Support Website on Cisco.com features extensive online support resources. In addition, Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers provide telephone support. If you do not hold a valid Cisco service contract, contact your reseller.

Cisco Technical Support Website

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To ensure that all service requests are reported in a standard format, Cisco has established severity definitions.

Severity 1 (S1)—Your network is "down," or there is a critical impact to your business operations. You and Cisco will commit all necessary resources around the clock to resolve the situation.

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